Svadba

Five years ago, Tania (Mariya Morinova) left her small village and left to Moscow, pursuing a career as a model. Now she returns, and for everyone's surprise, she decides to marry Mishka (Marat Mashanov), her former lover. As the preparations for the wedding begin, many passions are set loose. Mishka's family does not trust Tania and Mishka himself doubts about Tania's motivations. To make things worse, Mishka is not wealthy, so he must rely on his best friend Garkusha's talent for the illegal in order to raise money. The Wedding night will be full of surprises.

That is the plot of "Svadba", a Russian movie that proves that good movies are made with love and not with SFX. The wedding celebration is a perfect background for this comedy/drama that explores the misfortunes of a typical Russian family of miners. The realistic approach taken by director Pavel Lungin makes the audience feel part of the celebration, as if it were the real video home of an authentic wedding.

Part of this success is due to the great acting of the cast, Andrei Panin is outstanding as Garkusha and he steals every scene he is in. His character the perfect catalyst between drama and comedy, giving the film humor and heart. Mariya Morinova is beautiful and shows a great talent for drama as the mysterious Tania. The rest of the cast is quite good and everyone receives a chance to shine as the wedding party goes on.

"Svadba" presents us a glimpse of Russian society; in a manner similar to India's "Monsoon Wedding" or Mexico's "El Anzuelo", the wedding is an event that serves as backbone to the stories of the family friends and relatives, from the sister who can't find a boyfriend to the town's police chief, who wants nothing but to leave the small village.

Another point that is handled with subtlety by the movie, is the new society of post-Communist Russia. In the small village that seems lost in time, Moscow is like a dream, where capitalism runs rampant and where everything is to be possible. However, Tania returns home looking for a quieter way of life, and the inhabitants of her hometown represent that lost innocence she struggles to recover.

The movie is a light-hearted comedy with touches of drama that has enough charm to capture the attention without getting boring, or overtly sentimentalist. This is a movie that proves that all a movie needs to be good is a lot of heart. 8/10

I never heard of that russian movie until I saw it in T.V. The Director matches it perfectly to connect a typical wedding comedy with critics on the (many) social problems in Russia. You have it all: The rich mafiosis, the corrupt policists, the poverty of the workers, the alcoholism, the decline of social institutions. But despite all, it is very positive movie - because of the hero Mischa, the husband, who gives never up, but also tries to stay brave and not to become a gangster. The movie is in its original russian way a bit similar to the blockbuster "monsoon wedding" from India. But I think "Russian Wedding" is the better movie, more funny, more cynical, more realistic.

E.G.: the bride maria mironova looks like an angel.

This is truly an extraordinary film. Not at all what I expected and better than any representation that Hollywood has ground out - "Father of the Bride" through to Robert Altman's cynical view in "A Wedding".

I found the whole film mesmerising. The heroine is incredibly beautiful and one can believe that she is a top model. Her hero is wonderfully ordinary, as are all the various characters in this story. The plot unfolds in a way that reminds me of "The Fireman's Ball" (Milos Forman). Maybe it is the way it is in Eastern Europe? Whatever, the viewer feels that they are there, part of the wedding party. I once saw a play called "The Tinker's Wedding", which attempted to capture the atmosphere of a gypsy party, and failed (my view). Watching this production, I am more than ever convinced that it failed. I am prepared to go out on a limb & say that this is one of the most memorable films I have ever seen. It deserves an Oscar. I have been trying to get a DVD and have been offered a copy, in Russian only, from a distributor in Helsinki. If any IMDb reader knows where to locate a copy (with English subtitles). please let me know.

First of all, through the entire movie I felt like I have already seen this movie in some sense. After I have finished watching it, I realized it - Lars Von Trier, Celebration. And it was not the script, it was that "documentary" style that made me watch the movie without uttering a single word. "Marriage" puts you in the middle, not only you watch it but you live it with the characters.

I have lived in the largest coal-mining region in Ukraine for a long time. 95% of the situation in the movie is true.

I think that the casting was excellent, militia major is more than believable, Marat Basharov is very sincere, Andrei Panin is a natural "russian soul".

I totally recommend this movie to everybody !

I am grateful to the commentators who suggested comparisons to Robert Altman's "Wedding" and the Indian "Monsoon Wedding"-- the comparison that came to mind for me was "Sweet Home Alabama." But I definitely find it the greatest depiction of contemporary Russian culture, especially as it shows provincial, rather than big-city life. I titled my comments "Laughter through Tears," as that is a phrase associated with one of Russia's greatest writers, Nikolai Gogol, who inaugurated the absurd and grotesque in Russian literature. I know Pavel Lunguin as the director of "Taxi Blues," and find his development as a filmmaker in the 10 years between the two films very compelling. Longuin, to my mind, is one of the few filmmakers who has found his own authentic Russian voice in contemporary cinema.